47 Facts About Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista ruled Cuba as a military dictator until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

Fulgencio Batista served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.

Fulgencio Batista then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state.

Fulgencio Batista maintained control through a series of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was elected president on a populist platform.

Fulgencio Batista then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and presided over Cuban support for the Allies during World War II.

Back in power and receiving financial, military and logistical support from the United States government, Fulgencio Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike.

Fulgencio Batista then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.

On January 1,1959, Fulgencio Batista announced his resignation, fleeing the country to the Dominican Republic under the protection of Rafael Trujillo, before settling in Portugal, spending the rest of his life in exile until his death in 1973.

Fulgencio Batista was born in the town of Veguita, located in the municipality of Banes, Cuba, in 1901 to Belisario Fulgencio Batista Palermo and Carmela Zaldivar Gonzalez, who had fought in the Cuban War of Independence.

Fulgencio Batista was of Spanish, African, Chinese, and possibly some Taino descent.

Fulgencio Batista's mother named him Ruben and gave him her last name, Zaldivar.

Fulgencio Batista's father did not want to register him as a Batista.

When it was discovered that no birth certificate existed for a "Fulgencio Batista", he had to postpone his candidacy registration and pay 15,000 pesos to the local judge.

Fulgencio Batista was initially educated at a public school in Banes and later attended night classes at an American Quaker school.

Fulgencio Batista left home at age 14, after the death of his mother.

Fulgencio Batista was a tailor, mechanic, charcoal vendor and fruit peddler.

Fulgencio Batista transferred back to the army as a corporal, becoming secretary to a regimental colonel.

In 1933, Fulgencio Batista led an uprising called the Sergeants' Revolt, as part of the coup that overthrew the government of Gerardo Machado.

Fulgencio Batista was not a member, but controlled Cuba's armed forces.

Grau remained president for just over 100 days before Fulgencio Batista, conspiring with the US envoy Sumner Welles, forced him to resign in January 1934.

Fulgencio Batista then became the strongman behind a succession of puppet presidents until he was elected president in 1940.

Fulgencio Batista defeated Grau in the first presidential election under the new Cuban constitution, and served a four-year term as President of Cuba, the first and to this day only non-white Cuban in that office.

Fulgencio Batista was endorsed by the Democratic Socialist Coalition and the original Cuban Communist Party, which at the time had little significance and no probability of an electoral victory.

In December 1942, after a friendly visit to Washington, Fulgencio Batista said Latin America would applaud if the Declaration by United Nations called for war with Francisco Franco's Spain, calling the regime fascist.

In 1944, Fulgencio Batista's handpicked successor, Carlos Saladrigas Zayas, was defeated by Grau.

Fulgencio Batista divorced his wife, Elisa Godinez, and married Marta Fernandez in 1945.

Fulgencio Batista continued to participate in Cuban politics and was elected to the Cuban Senate in absentia in 1948.

Fulgencio Batista ousted outgoing President Carlos Prio Socarras, canceled the elections and took control of the government as a provisional president.

Fulgencio Batista wanted to open a casino in the Hotel Nacional, the most elegant hotel in Havana.

Fulgencio Batista endorsed Lansky's idea over the objections of American expatriates such as Ernest Hemingway, and the renovated casino wing opened for business in 1955 with a show by Eartha Kitt.

Fulgencio Batista held an election in 1954, running as the candidate of a political coalition that included the Progressive Action Party, the Radical Union Party and the Liberal Party.

Fulgencio Batista lived up to their expectations, utilizing fraud and intimidation to secure his presidency.

On March 13,1957, student leader Jose Antonio Echeverria was killed by police outside Radio Reloj in Havana after announcing that Fulgencio Batista had been killed in a student attack on the Presidential Palace.

In reality, Fulgencio Batista survived, and the students of the Federation of University Students and the Directorio Revolucionario who led the attack were killed in the response by the military and police.

Fulgencio Batista's police responded to increasing popular unrest by torturing and killing young men in the cities.

Some of Fulgencio Batista's generals criticized him in later years, saying that Fulgencio Batista's excessive interference in his generals' military plans to defeat the rebels hampered Army morale and rendered all operations ineffective.

On December 31,1958, at a New Year's Eve party, Fulgencio Batista told his cabinet and top officials that he was leaving the country and resigned.

Already denied entry to the United States, Fulgencio Batista sought asylum in Mexico, which refused him.

Fulgencio Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power.

Fulgencio Batista eventually found political asylum in Antonio Salazar's Portugal, where he first lived on the island of Madeira and then in Estoril.

Fulgencio Batista was involved in business activities in Francoist Spain and was staying there in Marbella at the time of his death from a heart attack in 1973.

Fulgencio Batista married Elisa Godinez y Gomez on July 10,1926.

Fulgencio Batista was an inveterate philanderer who engaged in numerous extramarital affairs throughout his first marriage.

Fulgencio Batista cheated on his first wife with multiple women, and his children eventually became aware of his relationships.

However, Fulgencio Batista became enamored with the much younger Marta Fernandez Miranda, who became his longtime mistress.

Fulgencio Batista filed divorce papers shortly before his first grandchild was born.

Fulgencio Batista died of a heart attack on August 6,1973, in Marbella, Spain.